Deceptions
by Belle Walker
Summary: Deceiving your colleagues can be pretty fun. Originally written 2003.
1. Chapter 1

"You're late," Sara accused as Grissom walked into the break room with the assignments.

"My sincerest apologies, Miss Sidle," Grissom answered as he joined his colleagues at the table. He offered no explanation as to his tardiness. "Warrick, you have a D.B. at the Monaco."

"Cool." Warrick grabbed the assignment slip from the table.

"Nick and Catherine, skeleton found near Lake Mead." Grissom passed their small slip of paper across the table.

Sara waited patiently for her assignment. She lifted her left hand to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear.

The movement caught Nick's eye. "Whoa!" He reached out and caught her wrist. "What's that?" Nick demanded.

Sara looked blankly at him. "What's what?"

"This." Nick lifted her left hand up for all to see.

Sara colored slightly, staring at the diamond attached to the band of gold encircling her left ring finger. "Oh. That. Um..." She thought quickly. "Family heirloom."

Nick didn't believe her, it was written plainly on his face.

Warrick put his two cents in. "That looks like an engagement ring."

"It's not," Sara said quickly, shooting a glance at Grissom.

Grissom was looking at her strangely. "That sure looks like an engagement ring to me," he said matter-of-factly.

Sara gave him an innocent smile. "Well, it's _not_," she said through slightly clenched teeth.

Sometimes she wished these people weren't so observant. It was a wedding ring, not an engagement ring, but they didn't need to know that.

"Sara, please tell me you're not back with Hank," Catherine pleaded, staring at the large diamond.

An annoyed look crossed Sara's face. "Give me a little credit, Catherine. Hank is history."

Catherine held up her hands in surrender. "Hey, I just don't want to see you hurt again, that's all."

"Thanks, Cath, but I can take care of myself." Sara gave a forced smile. She should have known that once they saw her ring, her colleagues would grill her relentlessly about it.

Grissom had an odd expression on his face. It looked almost like _amusement_...

Sara cleared her throat. "Um, Grissom? Do I get an assignment too?"

Grissom blinked. "Yes. You and I are working a case. Park Ranger found a half-decomposed body on a hiking trail."

"Thank you," Sara said primly, snatching the assignment slip from his grasp and scanning her eyes over it.

"Are you gonna tell us who gave you that ring?" Nick prodded.

Sara pursed her lips, wanting to throttle Nick's neck. In a falsely sweet voice, she answered, "I already told you, it's a family heirloom."

"There's no way it's a family heirloom," Warrick insisted. "It's too new-looking and shiny."

Sara glared at him, silently willing him to shut up. She glanced at Grissom out of the corner of her eye. He had that look on his face again. Was he actually enjoying this? Did he not care?

"It's an engagement ring," Catherine decided. "It has to be."

Grissom pondered this. He turned to Sara. "Catherine's right, isn't she?" he asked curiously.

Sara wanted to hide under the table. "So what if it is?" she demanded. "Don't I have the right to get engaged if I want to?"

Everyone was stunned silent at Sara's outburst.

"Nobody is judging you, Sara," Grissom said gently.

Sara narrowed her eyes at him.

"So, who is he?" Nick persisted again.

Sara crossed her arms over her chest and mumbled something.

"What? I didn't catch that." Warrick leaned forward.

"I said _'Nobody'."_

Catherine peered at her from under her blonde bangs. "So you go around accepting marriage proposals from nobodies?"

Sara was clearly agitated.

Grissom hoped she would not be mad at him for his briefly joining in the teasing. He decided to put a stop to the questioning. "I think if Miss Sidle wants to get engaged to anybody or nobody, it's no one's business but hers."

Sara turned grateful eyes toward him. "Thank you. Now, I don't know about you people, but I came here to solve a crime." Case assignment in hand, she stood up and strode out the door. She stopped and looked back at Grissom. "You coming?"

"I'll meet you in the parking lot," Grissom answered. As soon as Sara was gone, Catherine turned on him.

"Don't you even _care_ that Sara has gotten herself engaged to some guy?" Catherine practically shouted. "I thought you two had worked things out!"

"As I said before, Catherine," Grissom said. "Whether Sara is engaged to someone or not, her personal life is her business. Nobody else's." With that, he stood and left the room.

He found Sara outside, leaning against the CSI lab's Tahoe, waiting for him.

"You do realize what you called me in there, don't you?" Sara asked with a raised eyebrow as Grissom approached her.

At Grissom's blank expression, Sara elaborated. "You called me 'Miss Sidle'. Not just once, but _twice_."

A grin spread across Grissom's features. "Oh. I guess I did." He grasped her fingers, bringing the back of her hand to his lips. "My absolute sincerest apologies, Mrs. Grissom."


	2. Chapter 2

_It's payback time,_ Sara thought to herself with a satisfied smirk. _It's _**_his_**_ turn to be a specimen under their microscope._

It would stand to reason that their colleagues would notice _her _wedding ring two days ago and not see _his_.

"What are you smiling about?"

Sara quickly wiped the smirk off her face. "Was I smiling?"

Grissom gave her a sideways glance. "Well, you're not now. You okay?"

Sara trained her features into what she hoped was an innocent look. "Just fine, honey."

"You sure?"

She nodded, smiling pleasantly on the outside but grinning evilly on the inside. "Yep. I enjoyed our two days off, and now I'm looking forward to work again."

Grissom decided not to press further. "Okay." He parked the Tahoe in the parking lot and they walked into the building together.

"I'll meet you in the break room, okay?" Sara said, pushing open the restroom door and stepping inside.

Grissom raised an eyebrow at her back and continued on.

As soon as the restroom door shut, Sara burst into a fit of giggles. _Oh, this plan is going to be so good! It'll serve him right, _she told herself.

She finished her evil giggling and checked her appearance in the mirror. She brushed back a few straying strands of hair, put on her best emotionless face, and exited the rest room.

Time to put her acting skills to good use.

Nick, Catherine and Warrick gave their greetings when she appeared in the break room and headed for the coffee machine.

"Hey," Sara answered back.

Grissom said nothing; he was busy looking through a case folder.

The other three CSIs observed his silence, assuming it was aimed deliberately at Sara.

Catherine gave Sara a questioning look.

Sara just shrugged, biting back a smile behind her coffee cup. She sat down at the table, making a point not to sit anywhere near Grissom.

Nick looked like he wanted to say something, but he kept his mouth shut.

Warrick just frowned at the ring on Sara's hand.

"Grissom?"

"Yes, Sara?" Grissom answered without looking up.

Sara hesitated a moment. _Should I really torture him like this? _she silently asked herself. _ He was so sweet last night...wait, what am I thinking? Of _**_course_**_ I should torture him! He deserves it for joining them in interrogating me the other day, even if he _**_was_**_ just teasing._

Sara bit her bottom lip. "Is that a wedding band on your finger?" she asked with fake suspicion.

Grissom's head snapped up so fast that Sara almost laughed.

His wide-eyed look quickly turned into a glare. Grissom had wondered when she would get around to exacting her revenge on him, and it seems he would not be disappointed.

Well, he couldn't lie and say it wasn't a wedding band, because there was nothing else it could possibly be. There was no way out of it; three sets of eyes were locked onto him in utter shock.

Sara's own brown eyes sparkled mischievously at him. She certainly was a sneaky brat.

"Maybe," he said evasively. "Maybe not."

"I believe that was a 'yes' or 'no' question, Gil," Catherine stated coldly.

Grissom turned his glare from Sara to Catherine. _"Yes,"_ he nearly snapped at her. "Not that it's anyone's business."

Sara stifled a laugh and choked on her coffee. She jumped out of her seat, grabbed a glass, and filled it with water to drown her coughing.

Her colleagues mistook it for a gasp of sorrow, but thankfully no one followed her to the sink to offer their comforts. They respectfully kept their distance.

Just like she had done two days ago, Catherine once more verbally attacked Grissom. "What's the deal here?" she demanded. "Did you run off and marry someone just to spite Sara for getting engaged?"

Grissom sent a darker glare towards Sara, who merely grinned at him behind everyone's backs. "I don't want to talk about it," he said firmly. Avoidance was always the best way.

"Oh my god, you _did!_" Catherine wailed. "Are you insane?"

"Anyone we know, Doctor Grissom?" Sara summoned up a venomous tone. She was enjoying watching him squirm.

"I said I didn't want to talk about it," Grissom fairly growled at her. He knew he shouldn't have teased her the other day, and now he was paying the consequences.

He cleared his throat uncomfortably. "The only new case we have is a shooting at the MGM Grande." He handed the assignment slip to Sara. "Have fun."

Well, that was typical. "You're making me work solo?" Sara almost whined.

Nick shot Warrick a worried glance. Grissom only sent Sara solo when he was mad at her for something. That engagement ring on her finger must have made him furious.

_But furious enough to go and marry someone else?_ Nick silently wondered. _That just doesn't sound like Grissom at all._

"You can handle it," Grissom replied shortly, wanting to laugh at Sara's fake whining. "I'm going to be helping the rest of you guys with your murder case."

No further protests were offered.

"Show me what you've got," Grissom requested of Catherine, Warrick and Nick.

With a sympathetic look for Sara, and a death glare for Grissom, Catherine opened a folder and started talking.

Meanwhile, Sara poured herself another cup of coffee, watching her husband and their three colleagues in amusement.

The matter of wedding bands and engagement rings had apparently slipped Grissom's mind as he absorbed the case information.

_And now for the grand finale, _Sara thought wickedly. _He'll walk right into my trap._

This was the perfect moment. Grissom was focused on his case folder laying open on the table.

Sara rinsed her coffee cup in the sink and headed for the break room door. "Well, I'm off to my crime scene," she said nonchalantly, as if the previous argument never happened. "Bye, Griss."

"See you later, sweetheart," came Grissom's automatic response.

A shock of silence fell over the break room.

Sara quickly disappeared out the door, afraid she might burst out laughing in front of everybody.

A mildly panicked expression graced Grissom's face as his words to Sara suddenly registered in his brain. He looked up to find three of his colleagues staring at him, open-mouthed.

Grissom's throat suddenly went very dry. "Oops."

Catherine raised an eyebrow, not amused at all. "Busted!"


	3. Chapter 3

Nick sauntered through the corridors of CSI, heading towards the locker room to grab his stuff and go home. Passing by Grissom's office, he heard his boss talking to someone.

Nick thought nothing of it until a particular sentence floated through the closed door and filtered into his ears.

"You know you shouldn't be lifting heavy stuff," Grissom lectured patiently to someone. "It's not good for you or the baby."

Nick stopped dead in his tracks.

_A baby? Someone was having a baby? Who?_ Nick wondered to himself. He recalled seeing Sara enter Grissom's office five minutes ago, and she hadn't come out yet. Was Grissom talking to Sara?

"Oh my god," Nick said aloud to himself.

"What?"

Nick gasped and spun around, holding a hand to his chest. "Man! Don't sneak up on people like that!"

"Sorry," Warrick apologized with a not-sorry-at-all grin. "So what are you saying 'Oh my god' about?"

"Keep your voice down!" Nick hissed, glancing around furtively to see if anybody had heard them. He motioned Warrick to come closer, and spoke in a low voice to his friend. "Sara went into Grissom's office just a little while ago, and hasn't come out."

Warrick looked at Nick like he was crazy. "So what? She goes into his office all the time."

"Well, I clearly heard Grissom say something about how lifting stuff isn't good for the baby."

Warrick's eyes bugged out. "Baby?" he exclaimed.

"Be quiet!" Nick admonished.

"Sorry! That's just a big shock! Sara's gonna have a baby? That's so cool!" Warrick was immediately enthralled with the idea. "So what are we standing around for? We gotta tell Catherine. Come on."

The two CSIs ran off to spread the news to the gossip queen known as Catherine.

Meanwhile, inside Grissom's office, Sara waited patiently for her husband to finish his phone conversation.

With a warm goodbye conflicted by the scowl on his face, Grissom finally hung up the phone.

"How's your cousin?" Sara asked with a smile.

Grissom sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Stubborn as ever," he answered. "She hates it that Jason won't let her lift anything heavier than a book."

"Well, Emily _is_ pregnant," Sara stated. "And moody. She probably feels like everybody's patronizing her. I know _I_ wouldn't like it if people did that to me." She came around Grissom's desk and perched lightly on the arm of his chair.

With a mischievous grin, Grissom grabbed her around the waist and pulled her onto his lap.

Sara gave a mild squeal at the sudden movement, but readily accepted it. Sitting sideways, she draped her legs over the arm of Grissom's chair, wrapped her arms around his neck, and leaned in for a kiss.

"Mmmm...thank you," Grissom mumbled against her lips.

Sara's eyes flew open. She pulled back and looked at Grissom. "Huh?"

Was he thanking her for the kiss? Sara knew her bugman was odd, but...

"Thank you," Grissom repeated.

"What for?" Sara asked, somewhat confused.

With a little smile and a shrug of his shoulder, Grissom replied, "For not being pregnant right now, too."

Sara smirked. "What's the matter, bugman? Couldn't handle _two_ pregnant women in your life?"

"Not both at the same time," Grissom answered, matching her smirk with his own. He shook a finger at Sara with mock severity and said, "I forbid you to get pregnant until Emily's child is at least a month old."

Sara just laughed at him. "Hey, if it happens, it happens. And I'll blame half of it on _you_."

"You better not blame it on anyone else," Grissom warned playfully, tweaking her hair and stealing a kiss.

Kissing him back, Sara shifted on Grissom's lap to find a more comfortable position, until a muscle in her back sharply protested. She broke off the kiss with an "Ow!"

"What's the matter?"

She sat up and winced. "I think I pulled a muscle in my back."

Grissom's blue eyes looked at her in concern. "Are you okay?"

"I don't know." Sara gingerly got up off Grissom's lap and tried stretching her arms and back. "Owie!" she whimpered like a child.

"Oh, honey...you need to see a doctor," Grissom insisted, standing to wrap his arms around her and gently rub her back.

Sara leaned into him, laughing embarrassedly against his chest. "God, I can just imagine _that _conversation. Question: 'How did you hurt yourself, Mrs. Grissom?' Answer: Oh, I just pulled a muscle while kissing my husband."

Grissom failed miserably at holding back his amusement. He muffled his snickering into Sara's hair. Finally, he calmed down, still rubbing his wife's back soothingly. "I'm sorry. It's my fault for pulling you into the chair with me."

"It _is_ your fault," Sara agreed. "If you weren't so much fun to kiss, I wouldn't have hurt myself."

Grissom chuckled and kissed the top of her head. "Why don't we just blame Greg," he offered with a wink.

"Aww, poor Greggo. He's always getting accused of something," Sara answered. "I don't need to see a doctor. I just need a good back massage and I'll be fine."

"You sure?"

Sara nodded with a smile. "Yep. Maybe I'll con Archie into a massage. I hear he has magic fingers."

Grissom narrowed his eyes at her. "You do that, and I'll have to kill him."

Sara smiled mischievously and pulled his head down for another kiss.

"I'll hunt down all your _other_ boyfriends, too," Grissom mumbled against her lips.

"Then I better tell David and Bobby to hide," Sara grinned. "Come on. Let's go home."

They left the building and headed home. After a foreplay-filled massage and some lovemaking, Sara and Grissom fell asleep, purely exhausted.

* * *

Throughout the processing of their crime scene the next day, Sara's back felt perfectly fine.

Until she bent down to close and lift her field kit.

"Oooh!" Sara gasped, promptly letting go of the silver case.

Grissom was instantly at her side. "What's the matter?"

Sara grimaced, not wanting to admit anything was wrong. "Nothing. Just a little pinch."

Grissom's eyes narrowed. "I knew you should have seen a doctor."

To anyone else, his tone would have sounded accusatory. But Sara knew it was only concern that clipped his voice.

"I'm fine, Grissom," Sara said, forcing her grimace to become a smile.

"No you're not, Sara," Grissom responded. Pursing his lips momentarily, he told her, "At the risk of sounding like my cousin's very patronizing husband, I don't think you should be lifting anything heavy if it's going to hurt like that."

"But—"

"No buts," Grissom said firmly. "I know I can't convince you to see a doctor, and I don't want you causing yourself any more damage." With that, he picked up Sara's field kit and placed it into the black Tahoe alongside his.

Sara bit her tongue against the retort that strained to be let out. Instead, she grabbed the keys from Grissom's hand and hopped into the driver's seat.

* * *

Back at the lab, Nick looked up when Sara breezed past the Ballistics lab where he was waiting for his ballistics test results.

Grissom followed close behind Sara, carrying two field kits.

Nick's eyes widened as he recalled the words he overheard Grissom spoke to someone yesterday about lifting things.

"Did you see that?" he questioned Bobby Dawson.

"See what?" the ballistics expert responded in a southern accent similar to Nick's.

"Grissom was carrying Sara's field kit."

"So?" Bobby replied densely, concentrating on the task at hand. "Is it illegal to carry someone's kit for them if their hands are full?"

Nick rolled his eyes. "Sara's hands were empty except for one very thin folder."

"So what's the big deal?" Bobby looked up, furrowing his eyebrow at Nick's worrying.

"The 'big deal' is that yesterday, I overheard Grissom talking to someone in his office. The door was closed, so I couldn't see who was in there. But Griss said, 'lifting heavy things isn't good for the baby', or something like that." Nick gave Bobby a pointed look. "And lo and behold, there goes Grissom carrying not only his field kit, but Sara's too."

Understanding dawned in Bobby's eyes. "No way! Sara's pregnant?"

"That's the only logical explanation," Nick determined. "I mean, who else could Grissom have been talking to?"

"Wow!" Bobby said, mostly to himself. "I gotta tell Jacqui. She'll flip her lid."

The first chance he got, Bobby told someone the news.

Gossip spread like a wildfire.

Within an hour, Bobby had told eleven people, who in turn told others, who passed it on to yet more people.

Catherine heard it from five different sources.

Warrick received affirmations from people he didn't even know.

The rumor flowed past Greg in the DNA lab, bounced on down to the coroner's rooms, and danced around Archie in the Audio/Visual lab.

* * *

Everywhere she went in the CSI building, Sara received odd looks from people.

Most of the other employees wore inquisitive expressions; a few had accusatory glances for her.

Unnerved by this, Sara took a detour into the bathroom to use the mirror.

Her clothes were fine. There was nothing on her face except for her makeup, and her hair was acceptable-looking in its stylishly messy bun.

"I must be slouching or something," Sara told her reflection. She still felt the occasional pinch in her back when she bent down or reached up, but it wasn't anything she couldn't handle.

Sara shrugged a shoulder and exited the bathroom. Entering Grissom's office, she retrieved her empty field kit and headed into the supply room to re-stock it.

A pilfered jar of Red Creeper fingerprint powder went into the case, along with plenty of evidence bags and bindle envelopes.

The box of individual swabs had only two left.

Wrinkling her nose at someone leaving only two swabs in the box, Sara stepped onto a footstool and reached up to the top supply shelf.

"Agh!" Pain rocketed up her spine and across her shoulders, and Sara would have fallen off the stool if Grissom hadn't caught her so quickly from behind.

"I thought we agreed you weren't going to do that," Grissom said disapprovingly, letting his wife go as soon as her feet were safely on the floor. He grabbed the box she had been after and set it on the table with a gentle thud. "You're in no condition to be bending and reaching," he added, ever mindful of her back injury.

A frustrated contradiction was on the tip of her tongue when Sara noticed Nick trying to appear inconspicuous in the doorway.

"Nicky, would you please tell Grissom that I'm not going to break?" Sara asked stiffly.

Nick gave her a neutral smile and wisely stayed silent.

"Sara, please," Grissom said with a soft, caring look for his wife. "Just humor me?"

Sara felt instant regret for the attitude she exhibited to her husband. "I'm sorry," she apologized quietly. "I didn't mean to snap at you. I'm just feeling a little stressed right now."

Grissom didn't voice an answer. He simply reached out and cupped Sara's cheek, lovingly caressing her skin.

"Thank you for getting me the box." Sara offered him a smile.

Grissom returned the smile, dropping his hand slowly. "You're welcome." Halfway out the door, he stopped and turned around. "Let me know if you need anything else."

"Yep," Sara responded with no intention of actually following his directions.

Nick silently trailed behind Grissom, glancing back at Sara with a slight smirk on his face. He couldn't wait to tell Catherine and Warrick what he had witnessed.

* * *

"You _saw _it?" Catherine exclaimed incredulously.

"With my own two eyes," Nick replied, grinning profusely. "He told her, and I quote: 'You're in no condition to be bending and reaching.' Now if that's not a pregnancy lecture, I'll eat my hat."

Warrick gave him a funny look. "You're not wearing a hat, Nick."

Catherine rolled her eyes. "It's an expression, Warrick. He doesn't mean his literal hat."

"That's good," Warrick answered. "Because then I'd have to do the Heimlich maneuver when this cowboy here chokes on the wide brim."

"Funny, Brown." Nick narrowed his eyes.

Catherine stepped in between the two men before the fists could fly. "Guys, we have more important things to discuss than wounded egos. Sara's _pregnant_."

"Duh, Catherine," Warrick said in a where-did-your-brain-go tone. "I thought we already established that fact."

Catherine glared at Warrick, pursing her lips. "We need to keep an eye on her."

"Uh, why?" Nick asked, uncomprehendingly.

"Because, cowboy," Catherine answered. "Sara's a workaholic, and her work habits promote stress, and stress isn't good for the baby. Not to mention the fact that she isn't supposed to lift things."

"You want us to babysit Sara?" Nick was incredulous.

Catherine nodded.

"Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?" Warrick wanted to know. "If she even gets the slightest idea that we're babying her, we'll be dead meat."

"I'm scared of Sara," Nick whined. "Cath, please don't make me babysit her!"

"You're a grown man, Nick," Catherine responded. "Stop whining."

Nick pouted instead.

"All right, we'll keep an eye on her," Warrick conceded. "But if she catches on and kills us all, I'm blaming you."

Catherine smiled widely.

* * *

"Did you tell anybody that I hurt my back?" Sara asked Grissom at the beginning of shift one night.

"No," Grissom answered, slightly furrowing his eyebrow. "Why?"

Sara perched on the edge of her husband's desk. "I've been getting weird looks all week. It's like every single person I see is either smirking or scowling at me. At first, I thought maybe I was slouching or something, but I'm not."

Grissom considered the situation a moment. "People are weird," he concluded. "Especially the ones who work here."

"With the exception of _us_, of course," Sara added with a grin.

"Of course."

"And it's not just the weird looks I'm getting from people," Sara continued with her ranting. "Everyone's treating me like some breakable object."

"How so?" Grissom was perplexed.

"Well...for example: today Nick insisted on holding open every door I went through. Even when his hands were full and mine were practically empty, he'd run ahead of me and open the door."

"He was probably just being a gentleman," Grissom defended Nick.

Sara stared at him. "Griss? Nick has _never_ done that to me before. He knows better. Or at least, he _used_ to know better."

"Well, what about Warrick?" Grissom questioned. "Surely _he_ didn't try to help you too."

Sara smirked. "Of _course_ he did. He pulled a chair out for me in the break room. And _then_ he pushed it in when I sat down!"

Grissom snickered at Sara. "The nerve of him," he commented sarcastically.

"I know it! It's like all the guys here have been struck by some disease that makes them act like gentlemen. First, Nick. Then Warrick. Then Greg, and Bobby, and Archie, Doc Robbins, David Phillips _and_ David Hodges," she counted off each person on her fingers.

Grissom wrapped comforting arms around Sara and stole a kiss. "Want me to tell them to knock it off?"

Sara shook her head. "No, if you do that, they'll start thinking I'm a mental case. And then they'll _really_ be patronizing me. I guess the only thing to do is ignore them."

* * *

"I wish you'd let me carry that, Sara," Nick began in a lecturing tone.

"I can handle my own field kit, Nick."

Unwilling to provoke the wrath of Sara, Nick held his tongue and continued his worrying silently.

* * *

"Here, let me take that from you," Catherine insisted, grabbing the box of evidence before Sara could protest.

"Catherine, that box is almost as big as you!" Sara exclaimed. "Now give it back before you drop it."

"Nope, I got it," Catherine stubbornly said, keeping the box out of Sara's grasp.

* * *

"Catherine, too?" Grissom exclaimed in disbelief, looking up from his microscope. "Maybe someone spiked the coffee with something and they all ingested it."

"I don't know. Didn't _we_ drink the coffee too?" Sara sighed. "I swear, Grissom, if one more person treats me like a fragile piece of glass, I'm gonna scream."

"Does that include me?" Grissom asked, slightly alarmed.

Sara gave her bugman a smile. "No, Griss. That doesn't include you. You haven't been trying to baby me like everyone else has."

"Maybe I should ask around," Grissom decided. "Maybe someone started a rumor about something."

Sara frowned. "People better _not_ be gossiping about me."

"Well, in any case, I'll ask around."

* * *

"It's a file folder, Warrick," Sara said in irritation. "Not a ton of bricks. I don't need you to carry it for me."

"It's a thick file," Warrick argued.

"Chill out! I'm not going to lose anything from it, if that's what's worrying you."

"It's not the file I'm worried about," Warrick answered without thinking.

Sara stopped to look at him. "Then what _are_ you worried about?"

Warrick sighed. "Look, I just don't want you to hurt yourself."

* * *

Catherine heard the scream echo through the halls. She ran toward the general direction of the noise and skidded to a stop in the break room doorway.

Warrick was backed into a corner with no way out. "We're just trying to protect you, Sara!" he weakly defended himself.

"Protect me?" Sara hollered. "Protect me from _what_?"

Catherine darted into the room. "Don't kill him, Sara! It's not his fault!"

Sara abruptly quit advancing on Warrick, and turned on Catherine. "Would you please tell me what exactly is going on? Nobody will let me do anything for myself! I can't pick up a _pencil_ without someone harassing me about it! Why are you all patronizing me?"

"We didn't want you to lift something too heavy and hurt the baby!" Catherine blurted out.

"Baby?" Sara echoed in confusion. "_What_ baby?"

Warrick gaped at her. "_Your _baby, Sara."

Sara gave him a very strange look. "_My_ baby? I don't _have_ a baby, Warrick."

This time, Catherine gaped at her. "Well, I realize that some people don't consider it a baby until it's actually _born_, but I never thought _you_ would be one of them."

Sara couldn't believe it. Trained investigators, and they were this moronic. "Guys. Listen to me. There is no baby. I am _not_ pregnant!"

"Oh god! She's in denial!" Catherine turned pathetic eyes to Warrick, who patted her shoulder.

"Which one of us should tell her that stress like this isn't good for the baby either?" he asked Catherine.

"I don't _believe_ you guys!" Sara screamed. "Where on earth did you get the idea that I was pregnant?"

Catherine and Warrick exchanged worried glances. Should they rat out Nick? Or take all the blame themselves?

"I think I found the culprit."

At the sound of Grissom's voice, Sara spun around to face the doorway.

There stood a very amused Grissom, and a very guilty Nick.

"_You!" _ Sara stormed, pointing a finger at Nick. "What did you do, Nicky? And you _better_ tell me the truth!"

Wide-eyed with fright, Nick tried to duck out of the room.

Grissom's hand clamped down on his shoulder and pushed him towards the very irate Sara. "Tell her, Nick," he said with a smirk. "Tell Sara what you told me."

Nick dashed away from Sara and Grissom, and cowered behind Catherine and Warrick. "I might have...accidentally...started a little rumor," he admitted fearfully.

_"__How?"_ Sara demanded through clenched teeth.

Nick cleared his throat nervously. "Um, well...a week or two ago, I thought I heard Grissom tell you not to lift things because it wasn't good for the baby."

Sara furrowed her eyebrow. "Grissom never told me anything of the sort."

Grissom explained it. "He apparently overheard me talking to Emily on the phone and assumed I was talking to you."

Comprehension settled into Sara's brain. She squeezed her eyes shut and abruptly turned her back on them all, silent as a mouse.

Grissom gave a worried look to Sara's shaking shoulders. Was she crying? "Sara? Honey? Are you okay?"

"What have we done?" Nick whispered painfully.

_"__We?"_ Catherine retorted. "_You're_ the one who started the rumor!"

Sara slowly turned around to face them. Her shoulders were still shaking and there were tears in her eyes, but only because she had been silently laughing at them all.

She took in the expressions on the faces of her colleagues, and nearly collapsed with laughter.

Warrick was confused. "But why did Grissom get mad when you picked up that big box of swabs to stock up your field kit?"

Sara calmed her laughing as best as she could. "That was because I pulled a muscle in my back the day before. When I reached for the box, I simply stretched the muscle too far again. It doesn't even hurt now."

Grissom was glad to hear that his Sara wasn't in pain anymore. "The phone call that Nick overheard was me talking to my cousin Emily. _She_ is pregnant, and was venting to me that her husband won't let her do anything around the house."

"She also complained about being patronized," Sara added. "Which is exactly how _I_ felt these past two weeks with you guys, and everybody _else_ in the whole building, trying to 'help' me."

Nick, Catherine, and Warrick embarrassedly looked down at the floor. "Sorry," they mumbled together.

Grissom slipped an arm around Sara's shoulders and asked, "So what do you intend to do with these three gossips?"

Sara smiled widely. "I have the perfect chore for them."

* * *

"Honestly, I didn't think she'd let us live," Warrick commented to Nick and Catherine.

"Shut up, Brown," Nick pouted. "This is definitely worse than death."

"Ah, cheer up, Nicky," Catherine attempted to comfort him. "Just think, by the end of the week, we might actually be halfway through Sara's paperwork."

"Be glad she isn't making you do it all by yourself," Warrick put in. "Although I don't think it's fair that Archie and Greg aren't helping us. _They_ spread the rumor too."

Catherine snickered, finishing up another page and grabbing a new stack to start on. "I think everyone in this building spread the rumor."

"Having fun?" Sara asked from the doorway.

The trio gave noncommittal grunts.

Sara grinned. "Well, I've got more for you." She entered the room and dropped a stack of files onto the table.

Nick groaned, covering his face with his hands.

Warrick pouted.

Catherine simply glared at Sara.

"Don't get me wrong," Sara said, walking back to the door. "I do appreciate that you guys care about me." She paused in the doorway. "Just don't ever try to coddle me again."

Catherine stuck her tongue out at Sara's back.

Nick shuffled through the newest stack of papers to see what Sara had brought. "Hey! This isn't fair!"

"What?"

"We have to do _Grissom's_ paperwork too!"

* * *

"For the last time, Jim! Sara is not pregnant!" Grissom fairly shouted into the phone.

"Ummmm...Grissom?" Sara appeared in the kitchen doorway and looked shyly into the blue eyes of her husband. "You may want to rethink that statement."

Grissom looked at the half smile on his wife's face. He dropped the phone receiver and stared at her, suddenly unable to breathe. "What..."

"You remember that wonderful massage you gave me a little over a month ago when I hurt my back? The massage that started in the living room and ended in the bedroom?" Sara gave him a pointed look, trying to convey her message without having to spell it out for him.

A look of comprehension spread across Grissom's face. Normally shy at the mention of intimate activities, he couldn't prevent the hopeful smile that crept upon his lips. "Sara? Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

Sara walked over to Grissom and wrapped her arms around his middle. "I'm saying...that I hope she gets your blue eyes."

Grissom's arms held her close as he stole a kiss. "And what if _he_ has your _brown_ eyes?"

"That could work, too," Sara answered with a grin.

"We're having a baby," Grissom murmured happily, squeezing Sara in his embrace.

Suddenly, the realization struck him full force. "Oh my god," he gasped in a near panic. "Sara, we're having a _baby!"_


End file.
